A digital communication network comprises devices interlinked by a communication bus, for example the IEEE 1394 bus, or the IP bus, by wired or wireless means. A domestic type digital communication network includes, for example, the following devices: terminals enabling users to store and view audiovisual documents, digital television receivers (a set-top-box, for example) capable of receiving audiovisual documents originating from a transmission network or from a point-by-point type network (Internet for example), an audiovisual document storage device (a video recorder), a modem, etc. The list of devices is not exhaustive. There can be multiple instances of the devices within the digital communication network; for example, it is possible to imagine that, in a home, each room has a terminal of the same type. Each of the connected devices has a command input means which can be a keyboard, a mouse, a remote control, a joystick, a voice recognition means using a microphone, or any other means enabling a user to act on an electronic device. In other cases, the devices are not provided with a remote control and can be controlled only by front panel buttons.
The devices connected to a 1394 network can, for example, intercommunicate using the HAVi protocol by providing the others with a software interface called an application programming interface (API). In this way, if a first device needs the API of a second device, they can intercommunicate. Some devices may be provided with dedicated input devices. It may be advantageous for a user to control a device on the network using an input device dedicated to another device.
Patent application WO01/50219, filed by VM LABS Inc and published on 12 Jul. 2001, describes a system that can be used to connect a number of user command input devices such as: a joystick, a mouse and a keyboard. All the equipment described by this system is linked by a 1394 bus to a master central processing unit: a microcomputer. This system is thus centralized and the user command input devices are in fact dedicated to the master central processing unit which receives and processes the commands sent by the user. A user command generated on such an input device but intended for another central processing unit must pass through the master central processing unit which remains the unit controlling the input device, although the latter is not the central processing unit receiving the command. This way of communicating is not efficient because the device connected to the input device keeps its master status even though it should be considered only as an intermediate device.
Another solution would involve considering each command input means as a HAVi type device. Each device on the network having its own communication API (called Havlet), the command input device must download as many APIs as there are devices, which makes communication complicated and multiplies the interchanges. Such a solution means that, before an input device can be used, the user must always indicate to the network the device to be used and therefore the Havlet to be loaded.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,466,971—HUMPLEMAN describes in its preamble how audiovisual devices are often controlled from one and the same remote control. Because of this, the manufacturers have developed control units for controlling the devices from one and the same interface. If a device (2) wants to be controlled by another device (1), the device (2) downloads its interface API into the device (1) which can then control it. By extension, if a number of devices (2, 2′, 2″) want to be controlled by the device (1), it is a different interface that is loaded each time. The present invention avoids having to download different interfaces and thus allows for a far greater degree of standardization.
US document 2002/087746—LUDTKE also describes how, if a device (2) wants to be controlled by another device (1), the device (2) downloads its interface API into the device (1) which can then control it.
The present invention also enables the sharing of resources enabling a user to enter user commands to be better organized, even if the input means is dedicated to a device on the network.